Cycle Update

This is my first medicated cycle, and I've spent hours reading others' blogs to see what to expect from this experience, so I figured I'd update and share what's going on with me.

Today is CD 8.  My period ended on CD 6, with some slight brown spotting on CD 7.

My period started on Thursday February 13th at around 3pm, so we counted that was CD1.  I went in on Friday February 14th (Happy Valentines!  At least we don't celebrate that holiday, so it wasn't a big deal) for a baseline ultrasound. It showed 9 antral follicles on one side, 10 on the other.  No cysts.  Lining looked appropriate for CD 2 - I forget specific numbers. All looked good!

I took 2.5 mg of Letrozole (generic for Femara) every morning at 8am for 5 days - from CD3 (Saturday) until CD7 (Wednesday).  On Wednesday evening, I had 33.3 iu of Follistim injected into my left lower belly at 6pm, and another 33.3 iu of Follistim onThursday evening at the same time.

So, to put it more clearly, here was my schedule:

CD3 - 2.5 mg Letrozole (8am)
CD4 - 2.5 mg Letrozole (8am)
CD5 - 2.5 mg Letrozole (8am)
CD6 - 2.5 mg Letrozole (8am)
CD7 - 2.5 mg Letrozole (8am) & 33.3 iu Follistim (6pm)
CD8 - 33.3 iu Follistim (6pm)
CD9 - Ultrasound

My husband was a champ with the injections!  He really liked being a part of the process, so I highly recommend to other women going through this to have their husbands do the shot for them if they're comfortable.  I wasn't at all afraid of the injections, and probably would have preferred to do the shot myself, but after seeing how happy my husband was at being involved, I'm so glad I asked him to do it.

Today is CD9.  I drove up to my doctor's office today.  It's just under 2 hours door-to-door, so it was just about 4 hours in the car for a 10 minute appointment.  But it was worth it - it tells me whether or not we're using the right amount of medication to maximize our chances while minimizing our risks (like multiple pregnancies, ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, cysts, etc.)

The nurse was so happy and cheerful, and she was nice and gentle with the ultrasound (compared to the nurse last week, it was much appreciated!).  I've got one 12 mm follicle on my right ovary, and one 15 mm follicle on my left ovary.  That means I'm definitely responding, and well!  My lining is 5 mm, which isn't ideal - it should be at least 8 mm before ovulation, but we've got time, and even at ovulation, we have a bit of time before implantation would occur.  I had a blood test to check my LH levels to confirm I'm not ovulating on my own already (not likely, but possible since the 15 mm follicle is considered mature).  They'll call me later today with the results and the plan from here.

Assuming I'm not ovulating on my own already, the nurse said to expect the doctor to tell me to do another night or two of Follistim and then come back in on Sunday for another ultrasound.  Meanwhile, I'll do ovulation tests 2-3 times per day to make sure my body doesn't start ovulating on its own.

Since we're doing timed intercourse this cycle, the nurse will tell me when she calls exactly when we're supposed to have sex over the next few days.

We already were told to have sex Tuesday or Wednesday this week.  Since I still had my period on Tuesday, we decided to wait until Wednesday.  And then on Wednesday, we took a bath together with some epsom salts that I mixed with peppermint extract and lavender extract.  I used a bit too much peppermint extract, and it felt like a Ben-Gay bath - all minty fresh and made our skin tingle!  It was a nice bath, but to risk being TMI, I didn't want that tingly sensation in other parts of my body!  So we skipped sex, with plans to do it on Thursday.

It's really hard to do it in the mornings during the week (and we are usually morning people, if you know what I mean) since my husband leaves so early for work, so on Thursday evening, we planned to do it right away when he got home.  He definitely was feeling the pressure, which is something we've tried hard to avoid in the 18 months that we've been actively trying to get pregnant.  I felt bad that he felt pressured, but there wasn't much I could do that wouldn't feel forced and fake to help him get in the mood.  As he described after, it's like going to play mini-golf as a work outing.  Sure, mini-golf is fun, but the fact that you HAVE to do it makes it infinitely less fun.

I'm not looking forward to telling him several more days/times that we have to have sex in the next week.  It's so specific, it's hard to keep it vague and low-pressure, with no mention of fun or sexy.

I'm pretty excited, to be honest!  Two follicles!  I know it's not quite double our chances from a normal cycle, but it feels like it.  Especially since we'll likely have two large & beefed up eggs, great timing, supplemented lining with progesterone suppositories (Endometrium) that I will start after ovulation - I'm hopeful!

Even if this cycle doesn't work, I'm hopeful for the next couple of months.  Once we add IUI next cycle, we'll have a really good chance each month if this cycle is indicative of future responses.  Also, I normally ovulate on CD 15-18, but today is CD 9 with nearly mature follicles, so I'm likely to trigger on CD 11 with a CD 13 ovulation.  Which means cycles will go a bit quicker (assuming progesterone supplementation doesn't make my normal 14 day luteal phase into something significantly longer) which means I get better chances quicker.  At this rate, I could start my luteal phase almost a whole week sooner, which means finding out sooner, which means starting my next cycle sooner (since, despite the hope I have for this cycle, I'm still very prepared - at least intellectually if not emotionally - for another failed cycle as chance still aren't great for success).

I'm happy! I'm excited!  I'm so relieved I didn't end up over responding.  I'm so excited that I seem to be responding just as we would hope at this dose.  I'm grateful that my insurance has covered so much of our treatment expenses so far.

I'm in a good place emotionally today, so that's good.  I'll take the sunshine in the middle of this rain storm where I can find it.

Edit:  Well, it's been less than a hour since I wrote this post, but I just got the phone call from the fertility clinic. They said if my LH level from my bloodwork this morning was over 15, they would have assumed I was about to ovulate on my own.  Thankfully (though no surprisingly) my LH is 3.8.  So the doctor wants me to do two more doses of Follistim tonight and tomorrow and come back on Sunday for another ultrasound and bloodwork.  In the meantime, I'll do ovulation tests to make sure my body doesn't change its mind and start ovulation before hand.  Since there's no such thing as privacy in this process, I told the nurse that we had sex last night (Thursday, CD8) and she suggested we have sex again tomorrow (Saturday, CD10) and then wait for the results on Sunday to hear from the doctor when we should proceed after that.